Day and night: beauty falls on Tokyo (Marugen, Ginza)

It’s not uncommon to hear people complain about Tokyo’s lack of beauty. Especially tourists. I’ve heard many say “Tokyo was OK, but I LOVED Kyoto. It’s so charming.”

No argument here. Kyoto is charming. And, yes, Tokyo can be ugly and visually monotonous, depending on where you look.

One particularly gray day, I took a photograph of a medium-sized building in Ginza. It was remarkably unimpressive: about 9 stories, with a white/grey exterior, and a bunch of wires and air conditioners stuck onto the side of the building. Not much to look at.

A month later I passed by the same building at night. The neon signs, which had been turned off during the day, were a gorgeous green and red. The English letters ‘MARUGEN’ were displayed vertically a typeface reminiscent of Bauhaus. The contrast between these two views was literally night and day.

Nighttime is when Tokyo becomes beautiful. It’s also the time when I notice just how many ‘Marugen’ signs there are in Ginza. During the day I’ve unintentionally taken pictures of Marugen buildings while photographing something else. For example, Marugen 54 is hardly noticeable during the day, which is adjacent to the building with a spherical top. Yet at night, the Marugen building is quite pleasing because of it’s luminous signs.

“As you know, the word “Maru” means “circle” in Japanese and “Gen” stands for “Gensiro Kawamoto,” a Japanese billionaire who has made his fortune in real estate and owns 57 buildings in Tokyo’s Ginza, Akasaka, and Roppongi entertainment districts. In 1987, the Japan Economic Journal called Kawamoto the sixth richest man in Japan. His worth was last estimated at $2.7 billion, and the most amazing thing is that he is a debt-free billionaire, preferring to make most of his transactions in cash. He was once quoted in the Hawaii newspapers as saying that he considers $85 million “pocket change.” (I wish my pocket change was like that!) I know of Gensiro Kawamoto because he used to be my landlord here in California for six years.”

Before reading these articles, I had something of an affinity for the Marugen buildings. At night they were iconic, classic symbols of Ginza. Simple. Now, having read about Kawamoto, darkness has lifted. Are they as beautiful now? Of course not. Nothing in Tokyo is beautiful in the light of day.